Fundamentals of Missing Data in Evaluation

Presentation to MSU Department of Psychology, Program Evaluation Occasional Speaker Series, East Lansing, MI

Steven J. Pierce

Center for Statistical Training and Consulting

2024-12-05

Outline

  • Ethics
  • Problem
  • Consequences
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
  • Advice

Ethics: Guiding Principles for Evaluators

Handling missing data well enacts our guiding principles[1]:

AEA logo.

  • Systematic inquiry
  • Competence
  • Integrity

Problem

Types of Missingness

  • Item-level
  • Construct
  • Person-period

Consequences

[[2]; McKnight-RN1296]

Diagnosis

Describing the Amount of MD

[McKnight-RN1296]

Treatment

Advice

Practical Options

  • Item-level missingness in scale scores[3,4]

References

1. American Evaluation Association. (2018). Guiding principles for evaluators [Web Page]. Author. https://www.eval.org/About/Guiding-Principles
2. Fernández-García, M. P., Vallejo-Seco, G., Livácic-Rojas, P., & Tuero-Herrero, E. (2018). The (ir)responsibility of (under)estimating missing data. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(556). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00556
3. Graham, J. W. (2009). Missing data analysis: Making it work in the real world. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 549–576. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085530
4. Newman, D. A. (2014). Missing data: Five practical guidelines. Organizational Research Methods, 17(4), 372–411. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114548590

https://github.com/sjpierce/FMDE2024